Shelby County Commission chairman Terry Roland will not be running in the Republican primary for the 8th Congressional District in August.

After U.S. Rep. Stephen Fincher announced last week he won’t be running for re-election to the seat this year, Roland was among the local Republicans considering jumping into what rapidly became a crowded primary field.

“My heart’s not in it,” Roland said before the Monday, Feb. 8, commission meeting. “I want to be county mayor.”

Roland had already announced last year his intention to run for Shelby County mayor in 2018.

Shelby County Mayor Mark Luttrell is serving the second of the two terms he can serve under term limits in the county charter.

Shelby County Trustee David Lenoir is also expected to run in the Republican primary for county mayor in 2018.

Shelby County Commissioners approved a $163,400 contract Monday, Feb. 8, for the design of a part of the extension of the Shelby Farms Greenline.

The design work by Powers Hill Design will be on a two-mile section from the TVA substation on Lenow Road to the Cordova Train Station which will be the eastern end of the greenline once the four-mile extension from Shelby Farms is complete.

Commissioners also approved six grants to local nonprofits totaling $99,000. The grants are from a fund of $1.3 million the commission set aside at the start of the current fiscal year with each of the 13 commissioners allotted $100,000.

Those grants have to be approved by the commission and commissioners can and frequently do pool parts of their grant allocations for a single organization.

The nonprofits awarded grants Monday are Rise Foundation Inc., New Ballet Ensemble, Cooper-Young Business Association, Power Center Community Development Corp., Pinky Promise International and Raleigh Community Council.

Including the six grants approved Monday, the commission has donated $810,000 to 37 organizations since creating the fund.

Commissioners also delayed to its first meeting in March a vote on a state grant that would fund a pilot program on a hormonal therapy program.

17-Hydroxyprogesterone, a synthetic hormone, is used to reduce the risk of delivering a baby too early in cases where a woman is pregnant with one baby and has had a preterm delivery of one baby in the past. The drug is used as part of newborn screenings to detect the deficiency that can lead to the preterm births.

The Shelby County Health Department would take part in a pilot program from July 1 of this year to June 30, 2016 with a $25,000 state grant.

Commissioners delayed a vote on the grant to get more information about the side effects and risks of the drug as well as how women would be selected to participate in the program.